Brain Dump

At the beginning of the year, we started out with some tough reading. We read excerpts of the Debating the Canon. I have never read something quite that challenging before in my life. It took us days to read because of constant analysis that we did in order to understand what was going on. A canon a collection of books that is necessary to be read in order to gain a full understanding of the topic at hand. Our entire year so far has been spent reading canonical books from British literature, in order to help us gain a solid understanding of what British literature really is.

            The first book that we read was the dystopian novel, 1984 by George Orwell. Orwell was writing in 1948 during the aftermath of World War II. Europe during this time was in shambles. Country borders were being re-drawn, and the entire place was in poverty. In this novel he shows us the value of being mindful and how important language really is. In the novel, there were two main concepts that I applied to real life. There was Newspeak, where they basically took all the meaning out of words. They did this in order to remove all thought from everything, which leads to the next concept of “thoughtcrime”. Thoughtcrime is the idea of all thought contrary to exactly what the Party wanted you to think being illegal.  And this was enforced by the party being able read you thoughts through telescreens. The reason that they had newspeak was to remove all thought from speaking and basically living in order to make thoughtcrime impossible. I related this all to real life through connecting this to what the status of freedom of speech in America is like and sort of talking about it in relation to the conditions described in 1984 through a project. From here we moved to the Medieval Ages.

            The Medieval ages were a mess. It was a dangerous time full of monotony and repetition. People lived under the feudal system where there was a king, but he did not directly rule the people. They ruled the lords, the lords ruled people that ruled people that ruled them. The literature back then was broken up into a few categories. There were no novels however. In the Canterbury tales it provides the most accurate description of life in the late middle ages in a piece out of that time. Many stories were told orally therefore the written version sounds a little odd. Life was dangerous and it was risky to travel. But people found things to do. They told stories that were very entertaining to them. 

Jeremyt the BOXER

Jeremy Hyde: The Legend of a Champion

Prolouge:  Jeremy is 5’6 at a shaky 100 pounds. He has always dreamt of being a professional boxer; however his body and his cowardice have disallowed him from doing so. Jeremy is from Billings, Montana, and is the youngest in a family of 5. Throughout Jeremy’s entire life, he has been mentally and physically beaten down by his family due to his physical stature and his submissive personality.  His mother and father are raging alcoholics and are in and out of jail.  His older brother Jeremiah has always been the favorite child and has always been supported by the rest of the family. He was the star athlete at Billings High, and has always been a stud. His younger sister, Alison is a princess. Her each and every wish was granted as a kid simply because she asked for them to be. Jeremy on the other hand is afraid to ask for a new pair of shoes before his current ones literally fall apart. It has turned her into a rather atrocious adult. Jeremy had suffered abuse from his entire family in different ways. The only thing that kept Jeremy going through all of this was his dream and his idol, Pernell Whitaker, who in 1990 became the undisputed lightweight champion of the world. His dream was to one day claim this title, and he intended to get there.

When Jeremy was a kid, he always took crap from everybody because there was nothing that he could do about it. The constant beatings and emotional harassment that he suffers from his family has decimated his ability to stand up for himself. But Jeremy does have an unnatural amount of determination. Almost anything that Jeremy sets his mind to he can achieve.

One hot summer day, Jeremy was on his bicycle that he had built one day out of scraps that he found while digging around the junkyard by his school. Jeremy had been around enjoying the peaceful countryside and when he returned home his brother was furious. Like always he had refused to explain himself, and as Jeremy was parking his bike in the garage, Jeremiah, as if he appeared from thin air, struck Jeremy in a way that was all too familiar with him. He fell to the ground and let out a grunt of pain.  The next thing that Jeremy noticed was Jeremiah taking out his remaining rage on the bicycle that Jeremy oh so treasured.  Before Jeremy could rise his bike had been nearly destroyed. Full of an emotion that he had never felt before Jeremy, without thinking, took up the makeshift handlebars that he had fashioned out of a couple pieces of steel pipe and struck Jeremiah with such force that it knocked him to the ground. He stayed there for a few seconds, partially of awe, and partially out of pain. He then rose and returned the same brute force back to Jeremy in the form of a strike to the face. Despite the rather brutal nature of the beating Jeremy suffered later that day, he knew on the inside that he had won the fight, his family treated him differently from then on.

Later in Jeremy’s life, the determination paid off. Jeremy had made something of himself. Although alone because of his submissive nature, he had money, and the means to stop working and pick up a hobby. He then decided that it was the perfect time to pursue his dream. He started to take boxing classes for a start. It turned out that he had talent; he quickly advanced and began serious training. His trainer’s name was Phillip. Jeremy had only made it this fat because he was able to out maneuver his opponents and strike them before they could really lay a hand on him. Phillip explained to him however that he would have to learn to take a hit to make it in the big leagues. Therefore, one of the main exercises that Phillip put together for Jeremy was the “Punching Bag”. It consisted of Jeremy, without moving, taking a punch of Phillips choice directly to the face and then immediately after defending another random punch. Jeremy had trouble with this, but it didn't seem to affect his winning capabilities. In fact, after years of winning he made it all the way to the lightweight championship of the world without successfully completing this exercise.  The last training session that he had before his big fight that would ultimately allow him to accomplish his lifelong goal; he remembered something whenever it came time for the “Punching Bag”. He remembered the way that he felt whenever he had struck his brother for the first time, he remembered what it felt like to stand up for himself and fight back after getting knocked down. As he was preparing for the hit, he closed his eyes. When they opened a thunderous right hook jolted him in the face, he instantly re-opened his eyes and he batted away the following left jab and returned with a left uppercut that would bring Phillip to ground. He was ready.

The day of the fight, Jeremy had never felt more confident about anything in his life. He knew exactly what he needed to do in order to defeat the reigning lightweight champion of the world and he knew how to do it.

As the final ding of the bell rang to start the fight Jeremy was excited. He stepped into his first punch and it was successful in making the Russian stagger backwards. Jeremy stepped in for another punch but received a quick series of jabs to the stomach that made him back off. Jeremy knew he had to end the fight fast or he would simply be outlasted. He waited for a perfect opportunity which came early in the second round. Vladimir stepped in with a powerful right hook that ended up in Jeremy’s face, but instantly, as if he had prepared for this specific situation, he blocked the next attempt by Vladimir and returned the most powerful uppercut that he had ever dished out. It hit Vladimir and was seemingly ineffective. Jeremy then began delivering a barrage of punches that he thought would assert his dominance in the fight. But in the midst of an almost blind attack on his opponent he received a shot to the jaw that would knock him out. He had lost the fight due to a KO. When he awoke the hospital room was empty, except for Phillip and a TV that was covering the fight, and he had heard a mention of his name shortly followed by the description of a sack of potatoes falling to the ground. When his coach noticed that he had awoke, he cut off the TV and asked Jeremy, “So how does it feel”? He said that he wasn’t in pain. Phillip then corrected him and said, “No how does the win feel”? Jeremy was confused, he was sure that he lost and he was correct. Phillip then told him that he had won, but what he had won was not what he had dreamt of. Jeremy found his courage; he found it in himself once again to fight back. This time however, it had a much more permanent effect, although his dream was never accomplished, he had won. 

Free Post 2:7

So this week, I have decided to write my free post about my poor writing skills. The thing that i am going to work on in these posts is my word choice. I tend to use too many words whenever I'm writing and it is a problem because it makes my writing sound unintelligent and that is damaging to the grades that i receive for the writing. I wish to improve on not only my word choice but also on the flow of my sentences. My sentences do not go together very well and i repeat information too often. Really i shouldn't be doing it at all. Those are the two qualities of my writing that i feel lack the most, and that i wish to improve on.

I do have a plan to remedy this situation. So over the summer and throughout the Fall, i participated in a SAT prep class that was offered to my by the school. During the class i received a binder with pages and pages full of vocabulary. I am going to try and learn a few of these words a week and that should really help out my word choice problem. It will help because my lack of vocabulary accounts for most of the word choice errors that i make. And the way to improve my sentence fluency is to just keep writing. All i have to do is just keep writing, writing anything, an it will improve.

Free Post 2:5

All my friends are obsessed with school. I don't get it. Everyone seems to spend all their time doing stuff for school now and after they finish they are so tired that they dont't want to do anything! I don't like it! Haha, people spend so much time on it that i have to remind them that staying up until 2 doing homework that is worth 4 points is not the way to do it! They get so stressed out, and then sometimes i think "why don't i feel this way? Shouldn't i have work to do too? What is wrong with me"?.We turn in the same quality of work but i don't get all stressed out about it. I don't know what is going on.

A lot of the time I go home and finish my homework really fast and then i just chill. I don't like it sometimes because i know that i can bee doing more for school that i need to do but then i just let it go and relax. Maybe that is my problem, i should give myself so much time every night to do homework where even when i finish i should keep doing something so that i can make sure that i am doing all that i can every night and i feel like i am working as hard as everyone else. I like that idea! 

Early English Lit???

Early English literature was called written in Old English, it was also called Anglo Saxon literature. This was the earliest kind of English literature . It took place from about 450-1100. The kinds of work that were popular were Epic Poems, chronicles, sermons, and riddles. Oral tradition was a big part of Old English Lit, that is why there are only about 400 remaining manuscripts from that time period. Early English Lit was really focused on Heroes. You can find them in almost any piece of Anglo Saxon literature that you can find. They seemed to be very entertaining. The works that remain from the Anglo Saxons are also affected by religion. The Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity upon their arrival in England and this had an effect on their writings.

The Anglo Saxons used various literary devices, such as alliteration, using a ton of vowels, and alliterative verse. Alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration to bring lines of poetry together, as opposed to devices like Rhyme or Syllables. Alliteration is the repetition of a particular sound throughout a piece. It is difficult to explain but like if i said, "the wind will bend if you tend to the mend". there would be alliteration, it would be that -ind sound.  Theses are important literary devices that are used in Old English. Old English is the earliest form of English Literature.

Researcherrr

Government surveillance has gone too far, the American People’s privacy is no longer protected like it was supposed to be. The Fourth Amendment protects everybody’s right to privacy, or at least it is supposed to. Government agencies such as the NSA have way too much freedom on how they collect information or how much information they collect. They are able to do whatever they want with it too, “even if there were strict restrictions against viewing the information that was collected through “espionage” or any sort of illegal collection of information, it would not matter. If there were restrictions than the NSA would have to investigate in order to prosecute people, and through this investigation they would have access to the information and so it would be pointless”(Stallman). There is not much to be done about the information that has already been collected, regardless of how much it is. “The state’s surveillance staff will misuse the data for personal reasons too. Some NSA agents use U.S. surveillance systems to track their lovers- past, present, or wished-for- in a practice called “LoveINT.” “(Stallman). This is the worrying part about all of this mess; NSA agents can track anything about you as if you were a threat to the country, but simply because they want to.

Before the argument against excessive government surveillance is made, it is important to remember that it is excessive surveillance that is the problem. The government being able to monitor the American people is not a bad thing when done correctly. “For the state to find criminals, it needs to be able to investigate specific crimes, or specific suspected planned crimes, under a court order. With the internet, the power to tap phone conversations would naturally extend to the power to tap internet connections. This power is easy to abuse for political reasons, but it is also necessary. Fortunately, this won’t make it possible to find whistleblowers after the fact”(Stallman). The government invades personal privacy rights, but it is also important to note that “Corporations are not people, and are not entitled to human rights”(Stallman). The government uses this as an excuse to monitor entire corporations, instead of individual people. The excess surveillance of the American people is wrong, but some is necessary.

“The description of a world without any rights to privacy would be close to that of the dystopia described in George Orwell’s “1984”.”(Nocera). The government would have total access to everyone’s personal business and it would create a very uncomfortable position for everybody. We also give up a lot of freedom. “… if citizens don’t have basic privacies- firm protections against the search and seizure of your private communications… , Americans will become careful about what they say that can be misunderstood and misinterpreted, and then too careful about what they say that can be understood. The inevitable end of surveillance is self-censorship”(Noonan). Not only do Americans lose their rights to privacy, but surveillance itself will come to an end, according to Peggy Noonan. So if the government really does want to be able to collect whatever information they want, (in a completely legal manor that doesn’t involve how they already do it) than abolishing privacy altogether is not the correct action. It is important to think about how much worse the problem could be, and where it could be leading to, as it could be an important factor in the argument that surveillance in America is in excess and it is in violation of peoples’ human rights.

            Finally, “the government now has access to phone conversations, text messages, e-mail, pretty much anything that Americans use to communicate with one another that is electronic, the government is able to access”(ACLU). This alone is not a problem, it is good for the government to be able to closely monitor persons of interest, but not whoever they please. Recent discoveries such as the information that the former NSA analyst Edward Snowden has revealed has brought to light how much the government actually watches people, most of which pose no threat to the country. There should be some sort of Democratic Process to determine whether it is necessary to collect information about a certain person, or to monitor that person or group of people. Without some sort of regulation on who the government is allowed to monitor the excessive collection of information of innocent citizens will continue, and it is bad because it violates the right to privacy that every American citizen is given in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

In conclusion, the excess surveillance of citizens that pose no direct threat to the security of the country is wrong and is happening too much in the country. It violates the Fourth Amendment that gives American citizens a right to privacy. People that mean the country harm have forfeited all of the rights that they are given by the countries legislation, therefore it is not a violation of anything to monitor those citizens as closely as possible in order to provide for the protection of the country. However, right now the NSA and agencies like it are able to collect whatever information they want about anybody and it is very difficult to place restrictions on them because it is difficult to determine whether someone is a threat to the country. But there are cases that involve excess surveillance of people that pose no threat to the country at all, that is the real problem.

Works Cited

Nocera, Joe. "A World Without Privacy." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Dec. 2007. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

Noonan, Peggy. "What We Lose If We Give up Privacy." WSJ 13 Aug. 2013: n. pag. 
     Print. 

"Privacy in America." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 
     2013. <https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/ 
     privacy-america-computers-phones-privacy>. 

Stallman, Richard. "Stallman: How Much Surveillance Can Democracy Withstand?" Wired.com. Conde Nast Digital, 12 Oct. 0013. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.

Free Post. 2:4

Do you know what I have concluded about iPhones? They are very cheaply made and only seem better than say Androids because everybody has one, or a mac, or some other type of Apple device. A huge reason that people get them over and over again is because when apple first came out with the iPhone  it basically started the age of the full touchscreen smartphone. They were better than anything else when they first came out because there wasn't anything like it. And now, because everyone has one, or something Apple, no one wants to switch because all of their stuff( music, movies, etc.) is on iTunes and they don't want to get away from that. Apple has basically made people dependent on their products to where it is like completely starting over if you want to switch to something else. They have done this with programs such as iMessage that only work with other iPhones. It is terrible, people just don't realize how much better life could be outside of Apple.

Apple products look great. Everybody loves that new, slick, smooth look that iPhones and Macs have. There is only one problem with that, they seem to like it so much that they completely ignore how broken they are. If you haven't noticed, there are hundreds of iPhone repair places, everywhere you go you will be able to find one. Why? Because iPhones are made of the cheapest materials, and put together by the lowest bidder. Most likely, they could not spend less on the mass production of iPhones and Apple products. They are super-easy to smash and super-expensive to fix. Sure, they look great and what they say about them on the commercials about how they are so fast and what not is terrific; but whenever you get it and it accidentally falls from your hand and the screen shatters and you have to pay 100 bucks to fix it and the phone glitches constantly, you will wish that you had invested in a phone that really works.

Class Analysis Blog 2:2

This year so far, I have not been the most efficient reader, nor the most organized, but I am getting it done. This year, Ms. Duke has given us a great opportunity to manage our reading well and read in small increments every night. Even though i haven't taken full opportunity of Ms. Duke's generosity, i have been able to improve on my time management skills this year so far. Even though it seems like they are still very poor, which they are, I have improved. I have been able to somewhat pace myself in my work but i do still need significant improvement.

My work this week hasn't gone exactly as planned. Some days i was extremely productive, and some days  i did not do a thing. It shouldn't be that way at all, i got all of my work done however. I found that the days that when we were productive in class i was not productive at home. It was weird, most nights i found myself reading a few pages getting bored and stopping. But there were a couple nights where i read for a solid 2 hours each night, I don't know, i guess i just kind of worked whenever i felt like it. My "strategy" worked but i need not to use it anymore.

Free Post 2:2

Homecoming weekend was pretty fun, but homecoming week was so weirdly last minute that I almost forgot my costume everyday. So what happened was the weekend before, i went to the mall to find 3 costumes. I walked out with 1... The only thing that i could find was a batman shirt and mask that i wore for superhero day. The other two costumes i scrapped together from what i had in my closet. But that wasn't even the best part, the best part was the decrease in effort of my teachers(excluding Ms. Duke) to control the class. It was great, i was able to spend most of the week doing whatever i needed to get done in class. It was magnificent, and the weekend was not bad either.

The weekend was awesome. It all started Friday at 3:30. I got home, then i realized, "i have two cutouts in my back yard that somehow have to end up on the track". It took me about 20 minutes to find 3 people to come help me grab them. And after that, i got to stand on a glorified step-stool and attempt to tape a huge banner that we made to the roof of Penniman Hall. I was able to escape to Popeyes however and avoid a majority of the confusion and aggravation that was no doubt coming my way providing that i had stayed. However, the football game that night was awesome! We won and everyone was so excited because of the Homecoming Queen announcement. It was a great night to be surrounded with friends. And then the dance was really fun compared to the previous years homecoming dances. the DJ was terrific! My friends and I had a great time! And it ended perfectly with nice slow day full of homework and sleep.

Post WWII Europe 2:1

   

         After World War II, people, especially in Europe, were mortified. The expression that everyone rallied behind after the war was "Never Again". It symbolized the universal yearning to avoid another world war. Europe, which contained some of the most developed countries in the world, was ripped apart during this war. Also, many European countries were in debt to the United States and they could not afford to rebuild themselves. Thousands of people were homeless, and unemployment was very high. The weakness of the government actually led to a push for communism, as was the case with Greece. Along with that push for communism came a fear that the Soviet Union would take advantage of the weakness if the Western European states like Greece, and try to aid communist revolutionaries to overthrow democratic governments. Europe was in very bad shape, and it needed help.

        After the war, huge tracts of land in Europe were reduced to rubble, borders were being redrawn and there were many funerals to take place. Approximately four percent of the world's population were killed in this war, 80 million people died. Not only was Europe in ruins, but there were efforts made to significantly limit the war-making abilities of the axis powers. War crimes trials took place in Europe and Asia, leading to many executions and prison sentences. Europe as a whole was in shambles after the war, but in the countries that were included in the Axis Powers the death and destruction is worse. These countries, even after the war were completely dismantled and in some cases flattened. The point of these actions was to make it impossible for these countries to raise an army, and they were somewhat successful.

New buildings (right) rise out of the ruins of Hiroshima, Japan, on March 11, 1946. These single story homes built along a hard-surfaced highway are part of the program by the Japanese government to rebuild devastated sections of the country. At left background are damaged buildings whose masonry withstood the effects of the first atomic bomb ever detonated as a weapon.(AP Photo/Charles P. Gorry) # 

"World War II: After the War." The Atlantic. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. 
     <http://www.theatlantic.com/>. 

Carleton University Center for European Studies (CES). “EU Learning."
The Reconstruction of Europe Web.  28. Oct. 2013

Concepts. 2:1

Doublespeak- Doublespeak is whenever you are forced by authority to believe two contradictory ideas. in 1984  the citizens are forced to believe whatever they are told, much of which contradicts other things that they are told. Today, in America, doublespeak still occurs. Micheal Kammen writes in his essay, "People of Paradox" he discusses how the american people somewhat participate in this doublespeak and how "American politicians must be all things to all people”.(Kammen 34) He talks about how Americans are fed different ideas and we sort of accept them because we are told to. Doublespeak is a way for a governmnet to have some type of control over the people, by forcing them to believe what they tell them. In no way is it as bad as in 1984, but it is still present in America. 

Newspeak- Newspeak is an invention by the governing body of Oceania that is created in order to remove thought and meaning from words. The thought behind it is to remove all of the thought associated with everyday life so that thoughtcrime is literally impossible. The government of Oceania is effectively trying to take all of the thought and creativity out of the citizens' lives. Oddly, sort of the same thing goes on in reality, but in reverse. I think that, accidentally, when we text we shorten our words and it does take the meaning from them. It reduces some of the conversations that we have to just a meaningless exchange of words, and much of the time what is said doesn't mean what it was intended to mean and that never ends well. We accidentally take the meaning out of our words, and this is one of the things that Oceania does to control people...

Paradox- In 1984, there are a few paradoxes that are actually the slogan of the party. "War is Peace", "Freedom is Slavery", and "Ignorance is Strength". A paradox is an idea that contradicts itself in a weird way. In the novel, "War is Peace" is the Party's way of making the citizens believe that only through war can the country be at peace. There are examples of paradoxes in everyday life that are becoming bigger and bigger parts of life. We are not forced to believe them however, but we choose to sometimes. That seems to be a theme throughout America, we choose to do things that others are forced to do as a method of their government to control them.

Free Post 2:1

My dog is arguably my favorite member of my family, he is the only one that never yells at me, never disagrees, never tells me what to do, I mean i like the rest of my family but i think i like him the best. Any and every time i see Sampson when i get home from school or whatever he is excited to see me, regardless of how tired he is, or anything really. Every time i get home, without fail, I am greeted  by Sampson wagging his tail as if hit had been years since he saw me last. It really is great, and, the best part is i can say whatever i want to him, and he never looks at me crooked or questions what i say, I understand it may sound a little pathetic, but it helps me.

I got Sampson the Christmas of my 7th grade year at Episcopal. I remember because I got home from my dad's house one morning before school in mid November and i walked into my mom's living room and i saw my step-dad Mr. David trying to put something small and grey behind a box for a doggy door room divider. Overwhelmed with excitement i ran over and saw this little baby puppy scratching at the box wanting to run around and i was ecstatic. He was a bit of a pain as a puppy because he liked to use the bathroom at 4 in the morning and during November and December that is not a fun time to be outside.